I promised my sister I would knit her a baby afghan for a shower she was going to before I broke my arm. The baby’s room is being done in owls and the colors of purple and pink. She called and wondered if I was still going to be able to do it since she needs it ASAP. No pressure there. lol No sympathy either with a broken arm. Lol, just kidding sis! I already made her feel bad telling her that her husband and son are landscapers and they did not come and cut my lawn for me . That wasn’t fair since they live an hour away.

I wanted to try something awhile back so I thought I would try it on this afghan.I read an article that said you can take any Japanese design and knit it on the passap without distortion if you use the single bed technique 179 but knit it double bed. You have to do two things to do this. You have to have an even number of rows and you always have to reverse the main and motif colors. I googled owls on the internet and found a punch card with this design. I entered it into win/crea since it was only 21 stitches wide and 35 rows and made up the design. I used 168 stitches and the pattern is 198 rows. The afghan came out 29 inches by 29 inches. I could have added another row of owls but did not want a real large afghan. The colors are purple and pink even though the pink looks white. The owl does look better in the purple rather than the pink. The pink ones look like they have ghost eyes. haha

I was able to knit with one arm. The only hard part was putting the cast on comb in. I took my time and no mistakes…..always a good day when that happens!

I have the directions on how I knitted this afghan(but not the file) in detail right down to how to program the console for color reverse. Email me if you would like a copy.

Ha, ha, fooled you again. Here is my knitted strip of techniques for a three color design. It is shorter and took 918rows of knitting. I used 60 stitches and I knit 102 rows of each. I knitted techniques 195 to 200. Then the last three are 204,205 and 206.

I also had to learn how to download a 3 color pattern that is in the console. I realized I had never done this. These are the ones with the asterisks next to them in the pattern book. I used pattern 1285 and added 1286. I wrote this down programming the console to downloading to locks. If you would like a copy, please email me. If you would also like the information to attach to your strips of knitting, if you do one, email me for that as well.

The strangest of the techniques are 204,205 and 206.(bottom 3) In the picture you can see a blister type effect that is more pronounced in the last one. The book calls this a pin tuck effect. These three techniques require back lock changes. In #204 you knit 2 rows of color one on LX/N, 2 rows of color 2 on LX/N, and you knit 4 rows of color three on LX/BX. In other words, you are knitting 8 rows for one row of knitting. On #205 you will do the same with colors one and two and then you will knit 6 rows of color 3 on LX/BX. In this one you are knitting 10 rows for each row. On #206 you will do the same with colors one and two and then knit 8 rows of color 3 on LX/BX. This knits 12 rows for one row of knitting. All three of these techniques use black strippers. Now I don’t know if I did the last three right so I am going to go back and try something different to see if they look the same. On the back bed you only have four pushers in work , two on each end. It also might look strange to me because of the pattern I chose. I know that when I give up this machine, I still will not know everything it can do!!

I learn something new every time I use my knitting machines. I started looking through a lot of old patterns I have and I had Charlene Shafers Storytime Quilt book. I decided to use up some yarn I have and play around with her motifs in this book. Well, four to five hours later I came up with this.

Here is what I learned. The cows are unhappy in the barn and want to live in the house since it is bigger. The rooster is mad because he can’t find any of the hens and he got sunburned sitting on the fence all day . Farmer Jack is steaming mad because he started to collect the bales of hay and the rain clouds are getting his hay wet.Mrs farmer Jack is mad because she has the laundry drying on the clothes line and she is stuck in the out house and can’t get to it before the rain comes. …….well it is a story time afghan. 🙂

Okay, seriously I did not want to make a four color blanket because I wanted a lot of design and I did not want a super long afghan. The blanket uses four colors but it is knitted with a three color technique-199. I used hunter green , white and yellow until I knitted the last top stitch of the flowers on row 120. Then I changed to red as the third color and knitted to row 804 and then changed the red back to yellow so the tractor and hay were yellow. What I learned is that the afghan in my house looks like a normal hunter green all the way through it. In the picture it looks darker where the red is behind the green. You can only see the line in the picture . I kind of like the darker look so the cows spots look black. lol I thought of duplicate stitching the green spots on the cow but I am okay with it. So is you want to make something like this you might want to stick with four colors all the way through.

All in all I think it is kind of cute and tells it’s own story. I had fun making it and my passap was knitting like a dream and not one error with the whole afghan . I did have one thing happen but it was my stupidity. When I noticed the second strand of green had run out(did not wind enough off) I was 24 rows past the run out point. I still had the afghan knitted in an hour. I even took the time to see how much of each color of yarn I used.

Bet a lot of you never think I have a project that does not come out well. Wrong! A friend made a tartan plaid wrap and sent me a picture of it. I loved the plaid design. So I decided to make a scarf but I wanted the plaid to go all the way around so I knew I would have a seam. So I moved the pattern around so that one cranberry stripe would go up the middle on each side. Okay, good so far. Then I added two extra stitches , one on each end so the main color would knit those and sewing up the seam would be easy . Okay, still good . So I cast on 69-69, Technique 195 . Both end needles on the front bed. I used tension 3../3.. so it would be a little tighter weave so it would not be real wide. When I knitted about 3oo rows I got under the machine to look at the fabric.Yep, I like it. Knitted a couple hundred more rows and looked again. I took off the weights and comb and thought, oh, no, this will be too heavy a fabric for me. So now, do I drop from the machine or just finish and see what happens. So, since 2/24 yarn is multiplying in my house, I decided to keep on going to the end of the scarf which was 1152 rows!!!!! This is an afghan! lol Well, I sat and sewed it up and crocheted the ends together to seal the tube. I decided to just give it to the goodwill store. Then I thought maybe my sister would like to put it around her shoulders when she sits outside on cold nights around their campfire when they go camping in the late fall. I visited my sister and she loved it and told me she would use it to put around her shoulders when she sits and reads in their family room. So, all effort is not lost.

Now the real laugh is that it would have been a nice wrap if it was one layer, BUT….since I moved the pattern over the design would be way off if not sewn together. Haha

Hahahaha, bet you did not expect to see more of these. lol These two designs are different from the one I made last year. Remember, these little projects help you in getting to know your machine , casting on , programming and casting off. And they make great little “thinking of you” gifts.

I have given the instructions and files in my drop box. In the top one I don’t like my bind off. I knitted 2 CX rows and one N/N row and then kitchener stitched the open stitches. On the second one on the bottom I just knit two rows of N/N at the same tension and did the kitchener stitch and the top and bottom white look about even. I would suggest this finish on both of them if you make them. The top one is 29 rows and the bottom one is 26 rows so the top one is a little longer than the bottom one.

Remember, tensions are different on all machines. I used a tension 3 and most of my others are tension 3.. so….I am thinking that the mast tension discs might wear out some. I think mine are since I had to turn them to a higher number than 5.

Feel free to change the files if you don’t like them. I may go in and make the bottom red heart 9 stitches wide on each side instead of the 8 stitches that I have.

One file is called 3 heart mug rug and the other is called Heart 4 Mug Rug. I have two bmp files and one stp file.

Happy VD 🙂 This would be a nice gift with a red coffee cup to go with it filled with chocolate candy. Yum! Preferably dark chocolate. Yum! Yum!

Help! I can’t stop making these mug rugs. LOL This is a three color mug rug, Technique 197 , 40 stitches and 28 rows. The colors are blue, white and hunter green. I duplicate stitched the ornaments on the tree and the windows of the church. The design is from the book Add a Seasonal Touch by Designs by Debbie. I took several rows out of the church and the steeple so it would not be so tall. I also put space between the tree and church since it was a 24 stitch pattern. Oops, I forgot to put a star at the top of the tree. I put a stp and bmp file in my drop box.

Okay, I know you are getting tired of my mug rugs but just had to share this one since I like it so much. I found the tree on a site and added the rest to make this .

I just made four for my guests on Christmas day so they can put their drinks on them.

At first I thought the site I found the design on was a blog page but when I downloaded a translation app, it looks like it is a site for women. You MUST visit this site. It has the most beautiful knitted sweaters and designs. If you go on the home page, at the top knitting is under the home tab. Also look at the other tabs. There are designs for mug rugs. I don’t see any information on buying anything so still not sure what the site is for. I just made four for my guests on Christmas day so they can put their drinks on them.

Here is the link. Make sure you scroll all the way down the page to see all the beautiful items.

My mug rug is 39 stitches by 31 rows. 3 colors. 2 strands of 2/24 yarn. Technique 197. I had red as color one, green as color 2 and white as third eyelet color. I did cast on in red. N/N row was 1…/1…, two rows of CX/CX tension 2../2.. and last row of N/N and mug rug tension 3../3.. To finish, I just knitted two rows of N/N at same tension of 3../3.. and then took off with waste yarn knitting circular. I kitchener stitched to finish. To set up, use L19-R20.

When you finish the cast on and start to knit the first row, the end two pushers should be in the up position . If they are, the pattern is centered. In the pattern you will notice that row one has one red stitch on each end.

I have the files in my drop box at this link. You will see two stp files. One file has two e’s in name and one has one e in name. There are two designs for you. There is one bmp file for win/crea users.

I just noticed a mistake in the pattern. It has been corrected and uploaded into my drop box. This is a corrected picture of the final mug rug. I hope no one tried to make it so soon. 😦

I saw this design in a book I have called Add a Seasonal Touch by Designs by Debbie. I had to reduce the rows so that the box would not look like a skyscraper. Lol I took rows out of the bow and the box. When I made the first one I used two weights and had a loose mast tension. As you can see it came out longer than I wanted. I did not want to take out more rows because I liked the design the way it was. So I set the mast tension to 5.5 on both masts and I lowered the tension to 3./3. And I left the weights off. Now I think it looks better. The larger one is 5.5 wide by 7.5 long. The shorter one is 5.5 wide by 6.5 long.

I used 39 stitches and 35 rows. I used two strands of 2/24 yarn for each color and technique 183. Total number of rows knitted is 140. Needle set up was 19 left and 20 right.

To finish, on row 141 , I set locks to N/N and at the same tension, with color one I knitted two rows. Then I set locks to CX/CX and used a good contrasting waste yarn and knit several circular rows. Set locks to N/N and without the yarn, knit one row to drop the rug from the machine. I then took a double eye botkin and kitchener stitched across to the last stitch.

You can find the pattern in bmp format for win/crea and stp format for DAK in the drop box link below. I did not write out full instructions for downloading. If you have trouble with it please email me.

Okay, I am sorry it took so long to get this posted. I had been working on it but then other issues came up and I had to put this on the back burner. I wanted one for my turkey so I finally finished it and knitted it. This size is 95 stitches by 55 rows. Total rows 330. Technique 197. Finished size is 13.5 inches wide and 11 inches long. I did change my main tension to 4 from 3and two dots. I was discussing the bind off with a knitter friend of mine and she asked if I finished it using the kitchener stitch. DUH! I never thought of that. So that is what I did and I like the finished edge better than the latch tool. Yes, it took longer to do it but I think it is much better. So that is my way of finishing mug rugs and mats from now on. To finish it I knitted 330 rows. Then I set the locks to N/N and knitted one row of color one at the same tension I used for the mat. Then I took it off using waste yarn and circular settings (CX/CX)with a good contrasting yarn. The colors are beige, brown and orange and I used two strands each of 2/24. Here is the link to my drop box, I put the file of the design in bmp and stp format. The stp file is urkey.stp lol I guess I was in a hurry and missed the t in turkey.

In the lettering it looks like a mistake on the letter “a” but that is from a letter graph that I used. Feel free to go in and change it if you don’t like it. Please do not sell this pattern as your own.